Science Brings You Shoes Made From Genetically Engineered Stingrays

For a mere $1,800 you can own a pair of shoes made from the skin of genetically engineered stingrays. Thailand based company RayFish Footwear claims it has a unique manufacturing process that allows them to grow a stingray for each pair of shoes. Okay, ethical questions aside, this isn’t out of the realm of scientific possibility.

Ready for the weird part? Somehow the company can program the DNA of the stingray in a wacky design. Customers can choose from 29 styles, and since the stingray is grown specifically for the pair, no two pairs are exactly the same. The patterns include polka dots, stripes, and more in an array of bright colors.

It’s hard to say whether this exact process is possible. Live Science posted about the unlikelihood of these shoes actually being made the way RayFish is selling them. They talked to a biologist at Utah State University, Randy Lewis, about the footwear:

“To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to do what they claim both in terms of the colors, as many of those colors on their website have no way to be expressed in the skin, and the ability to completely control the pattern that they imply has not been achieved for any animal.”